Twitter on Thursday announced the appointment of its first woman board member in a gender breakthrough at the globally popular one-to-many messaging service.

Twitter, which recently made a stellar debut on the New York Stock Exchange, said in a 'tweet' that proven London publishing executive Marjorie Scardino has been named as the eighth board member of the San Francisco-based company.

"Thank you," 66-year-old Scardino said in a message fired off at her @marjscar Twitter account. "There couldn't be a more exciting time in Twitter's history to join."

In the time leading up to its initial public offering of stock in November, Twitter was criticized for a lack of diversity on its then all-male seven-member board of directors.

Scardino served as chief executive of Pearson from 1997 to 2012 and is credited with tripling the publishing and education giant's profit during her tenure.

Twitter shares rose more than five percent to $45.92 by late afternoon trading in New York. (AFP)